The Gophers welcome Mankato for 2 games at Mariucci this weekend, both games will be televised on FSN at 7pm and also streamed on BTN2GO.

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MavHockey14

11-10-2013, 01:28 PM

This could be ugly.

The Rube

11-10-2013, 02:22 PM

So.....MN has another bye week?

Greyeagle

11-10-2013, 02:25 PM

This could be ugly.
MSU having another bad jersey year?

Koho

11-10-2013, 03:37 PM

I thought MSU was returning a lot of their team? Did they lose some key players, or just haven't put it together yet this year? Seems they are always up for MN, so maybe they'll turn it on this weekend. At least we have good TV coverage.

Bonin21

11-10-2013, 03:50 PM

Or maybe a bit of a goofy goalie that had a hot year but may never do it again? (Cough, Kangas) Haven't heard how Williams has been.

Call It

11-10-2013, 06:20 PM

MSU having another bad jersey year?

I like it!

purpleinnebraska

11-10-2013, 07:00 PM

Or maybe a bit of a goofy goalie that had a hot year but may never do it again? (Cough, Kangas) Haven't heard how Williams has been.

Williams has been bad, but I think he'll get it back...eventually. But maybe not this year. Defense hasn't helped. We miss the smarts, leadership, and physical stay-at-home play of Elbrecht more than we thought we would, and Josh Nelson got hurt and may be out for a long time. Offensively, who knows what's been wrong? Blueger is noticeably better, but he's about it among all the returners. Leitner hasn't been close to last year's performance. Missed a couple games with back problems. Don't know if that still lingers, but his dropoff has made our power play pretty mediocre so far. Still have hopes for the long haul this year, but I'm worried we won't be competitive this weekend.

MavHockey14

11-10-2013, 07:08 PM

Williams has been bad, but I think he'll get it back...eventually. But maybe not this year. Defense hasn't helped. We miss the smarts, leadership, and physical stay-at-home play of Elbrecht more than we thought we would, and Josh Nelson got hurt and may be out for a long time. Offensively, who knows what's been wrong? Blueger is noticeably better, but he's about it among all the returners. Leitner hasn't been close to last year's performance. Missed a couple games with back problems. Don't know if that still lingers, but his dropoff has made our power play pretty mediocre so far. Still have hopes for the long haul this year, but I'm worried we won't be competitive this weekend.
You'll see Huggins in net Friday, and probably Saturday unless he gets lot up. He's been good this far and Williams has struggled to help this team win.

Leitner wasn't hurt, so there's no worry about that. Like I said in our season thread, it was discipline for violation of team rules.

Josh Nelson is likely out for the year, he's going to have hip surgery.

Zach Palmquist and JP LaFontaine have seemed to regress; something is off with their games. Palmquist has been a -3 the last two Fridays. When you're #1 defenseman is -3, good luck winning games.

The Mavericks will play hard, and may have turned the corner with a gritty OT win on Saturday. We'll see.

HarleyMC

11-11-2013, 01:59 AM

You'll see Huggins in net Friday, and probably Saturday unless he gets lot up. He's been good this far and Williams has struggled to help this team win.

Leitner wasn't hurt, so there's no worry about that. Like I said in our season thread, it was discipline for violation of team rules.

Josh Nelson is likely out for the year, he's going to have hip surgery.

Zach Palmquist and JP LaFontaine have seemed to regress; something is off with their games. Palmquist has been a -3 the last two Fridays. When you're #1 defenseman is -3, good luck winning games.

The Mavericks will play hard, and may have turned the corner with a gritty OT win on Saturday. We'll see.

Leitner, Palmquist, LaFontaine are key guys. If and when they find their mojo, consistent wins will start comin', but they should wait until the following weekend to begin their surge.

Steve_MN

11-11-2013, 09:15 AM

Looking forward to a couple good games this weekend. Even when the Mavs are down, they always seem to get that extra gear lined up right playing the Gophers.

D2D

11-11-2013, 10:02 AM

Even when the Mavs are down, they always seem to get that extra gear lined up right playing the Gophers.

In that respect they are certainly not unique. And if anything, with the new league alignment, the Mavs and these other teams have even more incentive this year.

purpleinnebraska

11-11-2013, 11:07 AM

Looking forward to a couple good games this weekend. Even when the Mavs are down, they always seem to get that extra gear lined up right playing the Gophers.

Oh, we'll play hard, I have no doubt about that. We played with an incredible amount of effort Saturday againt BGSU, and as noted, getting up for the Gophers is not a problem for us. My earlier comment where I questioned whether we'd be competitive is because we will play hard, but we haven't been playing well. For all of our effort Saturday, we got killed on faceoffs, couldn't get the puck out of our own end for most of the 3rd period, got outshot, and almost none of our shots were Grade A-type chances.
Effort alone isn't gonna beat the #1 team in the country on their ice.

gopher wes

11-11-2013, 11:33 AM

Is this going to be a typical Kato team where if they get down early, they just turn dirty?

SanTropez

11-11-2013, 11:39 AM

Maybe they won't, with Corky gone and all.

Bale

11-11-2013, 11:59 AM

Oh, we'll play hard, I have no doubt about that. We played with an incredible amount of effort Saturday againt BGSU, and as noted, getting up for the Gophers is not a problem for us. My earlier comment where I questioned whether we'd be competitive is because we will play hard, but we haven't been playing well. For all of our effort Saturday, we got killed on faceoffs, couldn't get the puck out of our own end for most of the 3rd period, got outshot, and almost none of our shots were Grade A-type chances.
Effort alone isn't gonna beat the #1 team in the country on their ice.

Exactly. This is a team that, from my point of view, has been extremely undisciplined to this point. I'm very confident that will turn around and will turn around soon. Losing little battles, taking dumb penalties and giving up odd man rushes are killing this team right now. From a defensive standpoint, there isn't a standout leader and it's showing. We know McInnis is going to lead and show up on offense, but we need a guy that calms everyone down on the ice when the opposition has our guys on their heals. We had it with Ehlbrecht the last two years and don't have anyone that's been the calming influence yet this year.

Bale

11-11-2013, 11:59 AM

Bleepity, bleep. I suck at the interwebs.

MavHockey14

11-11-2013, 10:53 PM

Exactly. This is a team that, from my point of view, has been extremely undisciplined to this point. I'm very confident that will turn around and will turn around soon. Losing little battles, taking dumb penalties and giving up odd man rushes are killing this team right now. From a defensive standpoint, there isn't a standout leader and it's showing. We know McInnis is going to lead and show up on offense, but we need a guy that calms everyone down on the ice when the opposition has our guys on their heals. We had it with Ehlbrecht the last two years and don't have anyone that's been the calming influence yet this year.

Oh, and we miss Zach Lehrke so badly on our PP. It's tough to replace a guy who you were expecting to count on like that as well.

5mn_Major

11-11-2013, 11:11 PM

Some gopher teams play down to their competition. This one not
...yet.

HarleyMC

11-11-2013, 11:42 PM

Bring back the Shack Attack (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ7EogvpQ7E).